CYPRESS, CALIFORNIA – The annual Toyo Tires Dakar Rally Blog is back at ToyoTires.com/Dakar with exclusive pre-race features and soon, daily coverage of the world’s most grueling, most unpredictable race. Covering nearly 3,500 miles over 13 days of competition, racers never know what Dakar will throw at them. This year, drivers will journey through Argentina and Chile between January 5 and 18.

Embracing the theme Meet the Unexpected, Toyo Tires will provide exclusive, first-hand reports from the Dakar Rally while chasing Team Toyo® racers Robby Gordon and BJ Baldwin as well as accomplished French-American racer Guerlain Chicherit. Fans can also depend on the Toyo Tires Dakar Rally Blog for never-before-seen interviews, footage and photos. All three drivers will compete on race proven 37-inch Toyo® Open Country M/T®-R tires.

“Daily posts by Toyo Tires will capture the unexpected and take race fans inside the legendary Dakar Rally,” said Amy Coleman, senior director of marketing, Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp. “From pre-race interviews to real-time updates, our annual Dakar Rally blog will be loaded with content that keeps people coming back for more.”

WHITE, GEORGIA – Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing, Inc. (TNA) located in White, GA; broke ground today for a 700,000-square foot addition to its current 2,000,000-square foot tire manufacturing plant. The warehouse portion of the facility will also be expanded by 323,000-square feet in order to accommodate the increasing demand for Toyo Tires® and Nitto® brand premium light truck and passenger car tires.

Parent company, TOYO TIRE & RUBBER CO., LTD. of Osaka, Japan, is investing $371-million in the TNA expansion over the next four years. This investment will result in the creation of 650 new jobs in the State of Georgia.

The state-of-the-art TNA manufacturing facility first broke ground in 2004 and features a proprietary automated production system called A.T.O.M. (Advanced Tire Operation Module). The first tire rolled off the line in early 2006 when the company employed a staff of 81 people. It has since undergone three expansion projects, more than doubling the size of the facility and now employing a staff of more than 1,000.

CYPRESS, CA – Toyo Tires® will have a bigger presence than ever before when the 2013 SEMA Show opens on November 5, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Attendees will see Toyo Tires exhibits throughout the show including on the first floor of the South Hall; in the popular DUB® Live area located in the parking lot outside the South Hall; and in Toyo Tires® Treadpass™, the new passageway connecting the Central and South Halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Countless booth and feature vehicles will also don Toyo tires throughout the show.

Costa Mesa, CA – Toyo Open Country tires helped racers capture two wins and a total of three podiums last weekend in Stadium SUPER Trucks (SST) at the Sand Sports Super Show in Costa Mesa, California.

Team Toyo’s Robby Gordon started out by capturing the Round 11 race win on Friday, piloting his #7 SPEED Energy/MAPEI race truck from a fourth place starting position in the 12-truck field to the number one spot. He then followed that up with a second place finish Saturday in Round 12. With his two-consecutive podium finishes, Gordon sits in second place in the overall championship points for the inaugural season.

“It was pretty cool to be able to come here and race Stadium SUPER Trucks in Costa Mesa, California. It is a huge step forward for the form of off-road motorsports,” said Gordon. “I am also stoked that we could pull off another victory on our Toyo tires, and it’s pretty cool that Toyo Tires won two of the three events here at the Sand Sports Super Show.”

Cypress, CA – Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc. and its affiliates (“Toyo”) announced today that on September 16, 2013, the United States International Trade Commission (“ITC”) voted to institute an investigation against 22 manufacturers, importers and sellers of passenger and light truck tires (collectively, the “Respondents”).

The ITC will investigate whether these Respondents infringed one or more of Toyo’s eight tire design patents.

The ITC has ordered that an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) make an initial determination as to whether there is a violation of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 in the importation into the United States and sale of certain passenger and light truck tires. Within 45 days after institution of the investigation, the ALJ will set a target date for completing the investigation. The ITC will make a final determination in the investigation at the earliest practicable time. Commission investigations are usually completed in 13-15 months.

CYPRESS, CA – Toyo Tires announces today they will send one lucky fan on an exclusive, behind-the-scenes trip to UFC 167 in Las Vegas. This once-in-a-lifetime experience is the grand prize in the Toyo Tires “The Drive Within. What’s Yours?” sweepstakes running now through October 13 on Facebook.

The Toyo Tires Facebook page features videos of UFC Lightweight Champion Anthony “Showtime” Pettis, UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz and others telling what drives them in and out of the OctagonTM. Fans are encouraged to share their own drive within while entering for a chance to win the exclusive UFC 167 Experience from Toyo Tires. This grand prize package includes:

SPARKS, NV – Defending Pro 4 Unlimited Class Champion, Kyle LeDuc and Toyo Tires, swept Rounds 11 and 12 of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series last weekend at the Wild West Motorsports Park near Reno, NV. LeDuc’s 900+ horsepower #99 Monster Energy / Toyo Tires Ford F-150 proved unstoppable as he made his way through the thundering field of short course race trucks on the 1.2-mile track to win on both Saturday and Sunday.

During Saturday’s Round 11, he posted a fastest lap at 81.273-mph; and then returned with an even faster 82.542-mph in Sunday’s Main Event. This is his third consecutive win, having won Round 10 at Glen Helen in San Bernardino, CA in July. LeDuc has now captured six podium finishes in 2013 (three second-place and three first place wins), as he pursues a repeat of his 2012 championship. Kyle LeDuc attributes much of his success to his Toyo Open Country M/T-R tires.

San Bernardino, CA – Defending Pro 4 Unlimited Class Champion, Kyle LeDuc, won Round 10 of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series at the Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, CA. LeDuc’s 900+ horsepower #99 Monster Energy / Toyo Tires Ford F-150 relies on Toyo Open Country M/T-R tires for grip. He posted a best lap time of 46.726-seconds around the undulating .8-mile short course race track which is constructed on the side of a mountain.

LeDuc defeated a field of 10-trucks to capture the top spot on the podium. This is LeDuc’s fourth trip to the podium this year, as he captured three second-place finishes so far this season.

San Diego, CA – Robby Gordon and Toyo Tires have won Round 5 of the Stadium SUPER Trucks (SST) racing series during its return visit to Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California this last weekend. This marked Gordon’s second win of the season with his #7 SPEED Energy/MAPEI race truck. With his combination of five podium finishes and two Fast Qualifiers, Gordon takes over the championship points lead with six races remaining in the 11 race series. It also marks the third victory of the 2013 SST season for Toyo® Open Country tires.

“San Diego No. 2 was definitely better for me than San Diego No. 1. I had a great battle with youngster Sheldon Creed with him pressuring me the entire race,” said Gordon. “It was a great race, these Toyo tires really worked well tonight, and I can’t thank all the fans enough for coming out and supporting us.”

SANTIAGO, CHILE – Toyo Tires racers captured six stage wins and a total of 13 podiums during the running of the 2013 Dakar which completed its final stage this past weekend. Running from Lima, Peru to Santiago, Chile, the roughly 5,000-mile 14-stage rally wound its way south along the Pacific Coast, while sweeping inland through parts of Argentina. Competitors were challenged with extreme off-highway conditions which included huge sand dunes, rock strewn desert roads, deep river crossings and treks through high mountains.

In addition to Team Toyo’s Robby Gordon, two past Dakar champions Carlos Sainz and Nasser Al-Attiyah also took on the Dakar using Toyo Open Country M/T-R tires. Immediately, Sainz captured Stage 1 with his American-built #303 Team Qatar Red Bull buggy. Al-Attiyah then responded by winning Stages 3, 4 and 6 with his #300 Team Qatar Red Bull buggy.